sixes_and_sevens comments on Leveling up... - Less Wrong

12 Post author: RobertChange 29 July 2013 09:38PM

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Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 30 July 2013 10:12:58AM 5 points [-]

On a related note, many of my personal development stories that end in "I don't worry about X any more" usually involve experiencing some sort of especially horrible example of X to which all lesser X-instances pale in comparison. We've discussed artificially inducing this at the London meetups, (referred to as "terror therapy" or "extreme CoZE"), but the idea of subjecting oneself to traumatic experiences in domains of existing discomfort doesn't seem to be a popular one.

Comment author: Ben_LandauTaylor 30 July 2013 04:06:54PM 8 points [-]

Huh. Horrible trauma has the opposite effect on me; it makes my aversions stronger. CoZE's gradual approach has worked better for me.

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 30 July 2013 04:29:04PM 2 points [-]

This may be a case of Typical Mind Fallacy. I've been thinking recently about how my (fairly pedestrian) traumatic experiences are instrumentally useful as motivation, in spite of being billed as "unhealthy" to dwell upon. I'm starting to get the impression that my reaction is somewhat atypical.

On the plus side, this could mean I have an amazing resource for motivation inaccessible to others. On the minus side, I may have to subject myself to horrible experiences in order to make it work.

Comment author: chaosmage 01 August 2013 08:14:54AM *  1 point [-]

The term to google here is post-traumatic growth.

Many traditional initiation rituals, which tend to be designed to teach you a lesson you won't forget, are quite traumatic. I'd like to believe the trauma serves a purpose beyond hazing and reinforcement of hierarchy, although I do not know it does.